Western Union Man: Western Union. Actually a bunch of us at the office were hoping that you could shed a little light on the subject. You see, we’ve had this envelope in our possession for the past seventy years. It was given to us with explicit instructions that it be delivered to a young man of your description answering to the name of Marty at this exact location, at this exact time, November 12, 1955. We had a little bet to see if this “Marty” would actually be here. Looks like I lost.
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Hey, hey, baby, how you doin’, come on in here. Got some hot chocolate on the stove waitin’ for ya as we wrap up this week’s Top 40 Countdown! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. If you missed the previous songs, you can check out 
If there’s anybody who has taken more pleasure in catching his woman stepping out on him as Oran “Juice” Jones has, I’ve yet to see it. This was a one-hit wonder for Jones. It reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart for two weeks, making it the first #1 R&B hit issued by the then newly created Def Jam record label. Not to shabby. If you want to have a little extra fun with this, check out Pamala’s answer to this song with her own – “
This great funky song was Cameo’s biggest hit. In the music video, that’s LeVar Burton as a police detective trying to arrest the band.
This was the lead single from Tina’s Break Every Rule album. This would just miss the top of the charts, as it was held to the #2 spot by “When I Think of You” by Janet Jackson and “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper.
“Shot through the heart and your to blame! You give love a bad name!” And so begins Bon Jovi’s launch into superstardom. This was the lead single from the classic Slippery When Wet album. This #1 smash hit was actually originally written by Desmond Child for Bonnie Tyler under the title “
This was the lead single from the album Can’t Hold Back by the late, great Eddie Money. And if you’re going to have parts of the song “
Madonna was already locked in as an ’80s icon by this point, and the hits kept on coming. This song would peak at #3. This was the third single released from the True Blue album. The album did pretty well itself only becoming the world’s top-selling album of 1986, as well as the best-selling album of the ’80s by a female artist. With estimated sales of over 25 million copies worldwide, True Blue remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. All five singles released from the album reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100, with “Live to Tell”, “Papa Don’t Preach”, and “Open Your Heart” peaking at number one.
This was the first single released by the British synth-pop band’s album Crash. It became their second #1 hit after 1981’s “
This title track was the first single released from Cyndi Lauper’s sophomore album. No sophomore slump here as the song spent two weeks in the number one spot. It was her last single to do so.
This may be a little known fact, but this Robert Palmer hit is actually a cover. It was originally done by 
This power ballad by the ’70s rock icons, Boston, was the first single released from their Third Stage album. It was Boston’s biggest hit, topping the charts for two weeks. It took 8 years between singles, but it was worth it!
Wow, Corey Hart had another song besides “
This was the third single released from the iconic Control album, and was the first #1 song for Janet (Miss Jackson if you’re nasty). It made her and her brother Michael Jackson the first, and so far only, siblings to both have solo number-one hits on the Hot 100. At the time she was 20 years old, making Janet the youngest artist since Stevie Wonder to top the Billboard Hot 100.
Climbing up from #27 to #18, this Bruce Hornsby & The Range tune would go on to be a #1 hit. This was the second single released from their debut album, The Way It Is. I was never a fan of this song, but some things will never change. That’s just the way it is.
This ballad would be Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam With Full Force’s first Top 10 hit, peaking at #8. They would later top the charts with “
Great ballad by the recently deceased Ric Ocasek. This was the only solo hit by The Cars frontman. The song jumped from #22 to #16 this week, and would top out at #15. After the Cars released their Greatest Hits album in 1985, the group split up to pursue solo careers. Just as Ocasek had this one Top 40 hit, singer/bassist Benjamin Orr did the same with “
Huey Lewis & The News did not rest on their laurels after their Sports album. They followed that classic album with another great one – Fore!. This was the second song released from that album, and would top out at #3. Fun fact: the song features Pro Football Hall of Famers and then-San Francisco 49ers Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott singing backup vocals.
Lionel Richie has so many smash hits that some get lost in the mix. This is one of them. I totally forgot about this one. It was a Top 10 hit, topping out at #9 on the Hot 100. It would also be Richie’s tenth number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Great ballad by Toto with legendary guitarist Steve Lukather on lead vocals along with guest vocalist Michael McDonald. Lukather recently published a book called The Gospel According to Luke which I would love to check out.
Former Chicago bassist/singer Peter Cetera followed up his smash hit “The Glory of Love” with this awesome duet with Amy Grant. It was also a success, becoming another #1 hit. Bobby Caldwell and Paul Gordon wrote the song for Peter Cetera to sing, and did not know, at the time, that he was leaving the band Chicago. According to Caldwell, “We did indeed write the song for Chicago and their lead vocalist Peter Cetera. We had his voice in mind, but Paul and I were unaware that he was leaving Chicago at that time, and when we heard the news our hopes were dashed. However, a short time later, I got a call at home from Cetera himself who stumbled upon our demo cassette tape of the song in producer/arranger David Foster’s office. He loved the tune and wanted to record it as a duet. It was simply meant to be—the song landed with the singer we wanted.” This song would bring Contemporary Christian music artist Amy Grant to the mainstream.
This song was Anita Baker’s first big hit single, peaking at number two on the US Billboard R&B chart, number three on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100. This song won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song at the 29th Annual Grammy Awards.
We begin today’s list with the second single released from Billy Joel’s album, The Bridge, which happens to be my favorite Billy Joel album. This is a fun video featuring several cameos, including Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Joel’s then wife Christie Brinkley who is holding their baby daughter Alexa. The song would peak at #10.
Yet another smash hit by Genesis. This was the second single released from the classic Invisible Touch album. This song would reach #4 on the Hot 100 chart, and #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
There were a lot of big fads in the ’80s. Yesterday, I had mentioned our love of ’50s and ’60s culture. There was also a big wave of Australia that hit the U.S. And of course, we had famous actors trying their hand in singing. Most were successful. There was Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, Jack Wagner, and of course Miami Vice’s Don Johnson. This was a huge hit for Johnson, hitting the Top 10, landing at #5.
I fell in love with this Canadian rock band in 1983 when I saw them perform at the US Festival. This would turn out to be one of my favorite songs by them. It was their most successful single in the U.S. landing at #27.
I don’t remember this song at all. Yet, it was a #20 hit, and came off of Steve Winwood’s huge album, Back in the High Life. It was the second single released from the album, right between “
Here’s another song I never heard of! What’s going on?!? Just kidding. If you have never heard of this song, you must have lived under a rock. This was the third single released off of the Bangles Different Light album. It as released in September 1986, and would hit number in December for four weeks, going into 1987. It would be the #1 song from 1987. This is the first song by an all-female group playing their own instruments to top the Billboard singles chart.
Three years after Frontiers, Journey finally released a new studio album, called Raised On Radio. Steve Smith was replaced on drums by Larry Londin, and this is the only Journey album without bassist Ross Valory. As anybody who has watched American Idol knows, Randy Jackson played bass for Journey, and he won’t let you forget it. Even though Journey was a mess at this point, I still loved this album. This was the third single released, and it peaked at #17.
This is a fun song by the British new wave group. It has become Wang Chung’s signature song. It would reach #2 on the chart, being held out of the top spot by “Walk Like an Egyptian”.
This was Billy Idol’s lead single from his Whiplash Smile album. This was originally a soul ballad from 1968, by William Bell, called “
I got so tired of both “Satisfaction” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones that if I hear either of them ever again, it would be too soon. However, Aretha makes this song so awesome! I cannot get enough of anything by Aretha Franklin. This song is perfect for her. It also features Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards on guitars, and Aretha on paino. This version of the song was used for the Whoopi Goldberg film Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
We begin the countdown with Gregory Abbott’s debut into the Top 40. This lead single from Abbott’s debut album Shake You Down was his biggest hit, and would go on to hit the top of the charts. Gregory Abbott is still out there releasing music – most recently, 2019’s “
This was from Jones’ third studio album One to One. It didn’t hit the Top 40 in the U.K., peaking at #43. However on this chart, it would peak all the way up to #17.
This is one of my all-time favorite Talking Heads songs. Released as the lead single from their seventh studio album True Stories, it would peak at #25. The video is also a lot of fun, and won “Best Group Video” at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1987.
This song would eventually peak at #10. The Pretenders were in a major transitional period at this point. This was the first single off of the Get Close album. A few years earlier, original members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon died of drug overdoses. During the recording of this album, Chrissie Hynde found that Martin Chambers’ drumming had deteriorated, still struggling after losing his 2 best friends. So Hynde let him go, leaving her as the only original Pretenders member. The album turned out to be a success. Chambers reunited with The Pretenders for their 1994 album Last of the Independents (which produced the smash single “
This is easily my favorite Peter Gabriel tune. It would only peak at #26 on this chart, but was a #1 hit on the Mainstream Rock chart. This came of Gabriel’s smash album So. However, it will forever be linked with the iconic scene in the 1989 movie, Say Anything…, as John Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler is holding a boombox, over his head, with this song blaring outside of Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) bedroom.
This classic by the Canadian rock group, Glass Tiger, was starting to drop out of the countdown, falling from 28 to 35. But, it was a smash hit in Canada and in the U.S., hitting #1 and #2, respectively. And yes, that is fellow Canadian Bryan Adams on backing vocals.
This song by the English electronic band was climbing up the charts this week. It would go on to peak at #19 in the US, #11 in the UK, and it would break into the Top 10 in several other countries.
Yes, ‘Til Tuesday had other songs besides “
Here is another song on the way out of the countdown, dropping from 23 to 32 this week. But not before becoming a huge hit, peaking at #3, and becoming one of the highest selling singles of 1986. The song was ranked number twenty-seven in VH1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the ’80s.
This 1961 Ben E. King hit song was re-released to coincide with the classic 1986 movie of the same name. It peaked at #4 in 1961 and peaked at #9 in 1986. In the ’80s, there was a lot of ’50s and ’60s nostalgia in movies, television, and music. There were many ’60s covers in the ’80s. And there were several re-releases, including this one.